You're More Than That
by beifongfirebender
Summary: Few one-shots on how Tokka got together. A glimpse into the rest of the Gaang as parents. (Characters from LOK (Gaang kids) in the background, because I couldn't resist)
1. Chapter 1

_**Since I'm an incurable Tokka shipper, I scribbled this little thing…**_

 **oooooooooo**

 **Chapter 1**

"And, and then Suki said the most ridiculous thing yet!" Sokka was pacing in a circle around Toph's living room, "She actually said that I have a thing for you! And then when I tried to explain our relationship… Our friendship to her, she said I spend way less time with her than with you and Lin! Can you believe her?"

"Yeah…" Toph started sarcastically, "Well, it's a good thing you showed her she was wrong by marching over here first thing after your fight…"

"Oh, I guess that could be read the wrong way." Sokka fell into the couch next to Toph who was lying down and snacking on nuts.

"Mighty brilliant, Detective Sokka!"

"Maybe she's right. Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to her lately," he sighed, "It's just really hard with the whole long distance thing. I know she loves her job with Zuko in the Fire Nation, but I'm a councilman. My tribe needs me here, in Republic City. I can't just leave every few days to go visit her. And every time I try to talk to her about becoming more serious or, you know, just living in the same place, she just says later…"

"I think this relationship stuff is really more your sister's area." Toph sat up.

"No, I know. Look at me, I've been bitching ever since I came here. Perhaps I am too self-absorbed." Sokka put his head in his palms and sighed again.

"Look, I'd help if I knew how," she grabbed his shoulder with her hand, instead of her usual loving punch, "But the only thing I can think of is… Well, that I go explain to Suki that we're just good friends. But clearly there are far deeper-"

"Could you do that? That would really help. I mean, there is other stuff, but tonight was mostly about me and you. And maybe if she'd hear you say it, she'd believe it." he stood up, suddenly not seeming so gloomy anymore.

"I'll do it then. It's the truth, after all." Toph stood up after him and received a tight hug as a thank you.

The hug didn't last long, but even so it was enough to get Toph thinking. It's not like his arms around her was unfamiliar, he'd been there for her for years, mostly since Lin was born. He helped out and supported her, without even being asked.

"We can go right now. No, you have to stay in case Lin wakes up… Then I'll go get Suki. She leaves in a few hours, but I bet she's still at Air Temple Island." Sokka started going for the door.

"Wait. Don't," Toph stopped him, "I can't talk to Suki for you. And you can't ask why. Ever."

Despite what she just said, Toph expected the word _why_ to be the very first thing out of his mouth, but to her surprise, he was just silent.

Then he muttered, "I'll go check on Lin."

"What is this? Why aren't you mad at me? Don't give me the silent treatment!" her words didn't seem to stop him, "We both know if Lin was out of bed, I'd know!"

Was this a fight? Did he somehow get himself into another fight today?

He stopped and turned around.

"You wanna go there, Chief?"

"Yes, I wanna go there, Councilman!"

"I am mad! You're my best friend in the world, I'd do anything for you-"

"That's the thing, Sokka, you're more than that to me." Toph couldn't believe she actually said those words aloud with him in the room. She'd thought about it so many times, but whenever she was trying to be at least a little bit realistic it didn't go over well.

She was trying to read his reaction from his heartbeat, but her own was so deafening at that moment, it was upstaging everything else.

"I'm sorry, it's just a stupid, childish crush. I'll get over it." Toph immediately wished she could take it back. They had been friends for so long she couldn't imagine just losing him now.

"Childish? Toph, we're thirty!" his tone made her smile, which made the whole situation a pinch less tense.

"Well, it started while we were kids. That's why I don't expect anything to happen. I just wish there is a version of this where I'm your friend, but I don't have to hear about the girls you date. Because that'd be awesome!"

"Mine started while you were dating Kanto. The crush. Suki and I were broken up, but I didn't know how or when to tell you. So I just got back together with Suki, because that's what I do when I'm confused," he noticed her shocked expression, "Oh, don't be so surprised, why do you think I had such a hard time explaining to her that there's nothing here? Because there clearly is."

He smiled at her and even though she couldn't see it, she smiled back like she'd felt it. Not really having any idea what to say now, or ever again, Sokka took a step forward and pulled her into a gentle kiss. Toph immediately deepened it as she way of saying she was on board with this.

They both ended up on the couch, when Sokka suddenly pulled away.

"You see how this is going to be a problem?" he asked.

"I don't _see_ anything, but I'll guess because you have a girlfriend and I have a daughter."

"What? No… And we're broken up, this is not wrong. Katara is the one that's going to make that water rope and strangle me. You know what she'd call this?"

" _Killing Team Avatar_." Toph mimicked Katara's voice, "She tried selling me that nonsense once. Talking about how they all need to approve who I marry, since he'd be a part of the group forever. She's nuts about that stuff."

"But what's the worst thing that can happen, really? A few awkward moments? I think the truth is not that bad."

"Yeah, Mother Hen won't do anything, but what about the press?"

"So we keep it to ourselves. For now. I don't want Suki to read about it in the newspaper, she should hear it from me."

"Deal." Toph started kissing him again and they both lost all sense of where they were. That is until they heard the door creak. Sokka pulled away just before Lin made her way into the room in her baggy pajamas.

"What are you doing?" Lin asked while rubbing her half-open eyes.

"One day, years from now, you'll remember this moment and just go _aha_ …" Sokka told her.

Toph waved her hand dismissing him and walked over to take Lin's hand.

"You snuck up on us, Linny." she said.

"We're sorry if we were loud." Sokka added.

"You should go to bed too, mommy." Lin looked at her seriously.

"You first, kiddo. Now say good night to Sokka."

"Night, night, Sokka." Lin waved and followed her mother out of the room.

"Did she see anything?" Sokka asked when Toph returned a few minutes later.

"Nah, she doesn't get a thing." she sat right back next to him, "And I don't want to confuse her. I already had one Sokka-is-not-your-dad talk with that kid…"

"Yeah, that works."

 **oooooooooo**

 _ **I think I'll post at least three vaguely connected chapters, all Tokka + Lin…**_

 _ **If you have any thoughts direct them into the comments, but go easy on me since I jotted all this down in a hurry.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Just to make my writing job easier:**_

 _ **The ages in the story:**_

 _ **Bumi (13)**_

 _ **Kya (10)**_

 _ **Izumi (9)**_

 _ **Tenzin (7)**_

 _ **Lin (6)**_

 **oooooooooo**

 **Chapter 2**

Toph was just ready to leave for work when she sensed a familiar walk just outside her window. She pulled the door open just as Sokka raised his fist to knock.

"You know I don't like it when you do that!" he complained.

Toph just grinned and moved back so he could enter. But as soon as the front door closed, she threw her arms around him and started kissing him passionately. It wasn't unexpected, since he had to be away for a few months to help his father in the South Pole and it has been torture for the both of them.

"Slow down… Where's Lin?" Sokka looked around, remembering the little earthbender could barge in at any time.

"It's fine, she's with Mr. and Mrs. Avatar. We're alone."

"Oh. In that case, where were we?" Sokka bent to kiss her again, but he was stopped.

"I actually have something to show you." She took a step back and bended her armor off. Underneath she had just a tight, white tank top which usually highlighted her excellent figure, but now it just made her baby bump all the more noticeable.

"Toph, you… A baby!" was all Sokka managed to say.

"To be more specific… We. A baby." she chuckled, "You're the only one that knows. I waited so we'd tell them together. Doesn't seem fair I get all the questions."

"Oh, spirits, this is… What am I gonna… This is gonna be a problem." he mumbled before thinking it through. He knew what an idiot he was, the instant he said it. But before he could correct himself he saw Toph's pained expression.

He messed up. Big. She already went through one such moment with Kanto. She told him he was about to be a dad and he just left her. And now, Sokka was putting her through a replay of one of the worst nights of her life. He had to pull it together.

"No, no, I misspoke. I'm sorry." he pulled her into an embrace, "I love you and I'm gonna love this baby just the same. And I won't be disappearing for months at a time anymore, I promise."

"Then why did you-"

"Because Suki came to visit today with Zuko."

"So? She has to know, too. She had plenty of time to get used to the idea of me and you," Toph sensed his heartbeat spike, "She did have plenty of time, didn't she?"

"Well, you know how we talked about how telling her might be hard and emotional, but it had to be done? I sort of went another way and didn't tell her. Yet."

"Nice going, doofus! That was your plan! Tell Suki about the relationship first then when she's OK with it tell everyone else to show them that nothing has to change. Now she's gonna think we kept it secret because you left her for me!"

"Not if we don't go around telling everybody about us right this second. Think about it…"

"I feel like I'm the only one thinking about it! They are going to notice the baby soon, I can't keep wearing my uniform everywhere. And that won't work forever, I'm already strictly on desk work at the station, people are gonna talk."

"I get that. And don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled about this baby," Sokka put his hand on her belly, "and I promise you we will discuss in detail how exactly all this will work… But could we maybe, possibly hide our little miracle for another few days?"

"Fine. Our kid will still be right here in a week." Toph was just hit with the realization that they would need to _discuss how exactly all this will work_ and she could think of a few things she would enjoy less. Emotional talk wasn't her thing. And frankly, even though she loved Sokka she didn't love the idea of him moving in here permanently. And she just knew he would make everything into lists and try to plan it all right away. With Lin it was different, since it was just her kid, so her word was the last, but now, they had equal say in everything and she could already feel it was going to cause tension.

"I love you! I love you and you're the best!" he started after she agreed to his plan.

"I know, but it feels nice to hear."

 **oooooooooo**

"Kids, Uncle Zuko and Aunt Mai are here!" Katara yelled before hugging her friends, "Oh, and Suki, I didn't know you were coming."

"That's weird, I sent Sokka a letter." Suki smiled.

"Never mind, we're glad to have you here. You'll all have to excuse Aang, he had a few stops to make today, but he'll be here… Eventually. In the meantime, come in!"

At that moment Kya ran out of nowhere, her hairstyle half done. She shot one look at her mother and then spoke up after getting a reassuring nod.

"Hello, Izumi. You want to see my room?"

The Princess responded to the request by hiding further behind her father's robes.

"Oh, come on, firefly. You know Kya. You two played at the palace." Mai kneeled down to incurage her daughter.

"Bumi, don't make me come get you!" Katara yelled and a few seconds later a furious Bumi emerged from the hall, one of his hands wrapped in gauze.

"I heard you the first time!" he snapped at her.

"Mind your tone." his mother warned him.

"You're the one that started yelling for no reason."

Katara smiled at her guests awkwardly. She wanted to have a talk with Bumi right there and then, but she decided it wasn't appropriate. She thought it best to wait until Aang was there too, before discussing the boy's recent behavior, since it was driving her crazy and she wasn't good at hiding it.

"So what's the story behind the arm, Bumi?" Zuko asked just to end the uncomfortable silence.

"Kya did it!" Bumi pointed at his sister.

"Did not!"

"It's your fault!"

"Enough!" Katara decided to end the situation there and then, "Kya said she was sorry she left her bending water outside, but she didn't make you slip. Now that that's done, Bumi go set the table and Kya take Izumi to play in your room."

Both the kids sighed and grudgingly got on with what they were ordered to do. Bumi left immediately, while Izumi took a few seconds to be ready to leave her parents.

"We'll be right here in the living room if you need us." Zuko told her.

"And no bending indoors, understood?" Mai yelled after the girls closed the door.

"She's not very good yet?" Katara asked.

"Oh, no. She's strong, so any bending in small rooms with wooden furniture would go terribly wrong." Mai explained and sat down next to her husband.

 **oooooooooo**

Tenzin planned himself a perfect afternoon of reading in the gardens, but when he imagined it he was alone. In reality while he was sitting in the grass, reading scroll after scroll, he could feel the earth shake and twitch every few minutes since Lin was practicing her bending at the same time. But he endured it, up until a bit of mud hit the paper he was currently reading.

"Stop! Just stop!" he got up and turned to Lin, "I would have you know, you're destroying a thousand year old manuscript!"

"Sorry!" she ran to him completely covered in mud and grabbed the scroll right out of his hands, "Let me fix it."

"No, no! You're making it worse, let go!" he took it right back, now even more dirty. Seeing the look on his face, Lin waved her hands and the dirt flew from the page and back to the ground.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were so twitchy about your scrolls…" she let herself fall onto the ground and relaxed, "What are you reading anyway?"

"The Story of Guru Laghima."

"Sounds boring."

It is, he thought, but of course didn't wanna share that. His dad told him he had to read the whole thing before they went to the Northern Air Temple and he wasn't planning on disappointing him.

"It doesn't matter. My dad told me to read them."

"Did you catch the pro-bending match last night?" Lin continued trying to get a conversation going.

"No."

"Oh, boy, you should have seen it! This earthbending girl was all alone and everyone thought it was over when she knocked the entire other team out in the last few seconds!" A few rocks in the distance rose and pounded into the ground as Lin could barely hold her excitement while speaking.

"Wait, isn't pro-bending late at night? How did your mother let you listen to it?"

"My mom is blind, Tenzin! She can't use clocks. And even if she knew I stayed up late, she wouldn't care."

"Your mom's weird."

"You're weird!" she said before realizing it was kind of mean. Tenzin didn't seem all that fazed. He just looked down and continued reading his scrolls again.

"What's so special about that Lahma guy, anyway?" she started again, "Does he fight crime?"

"Lagh-ima. And no. He could fly."

"Yeah, but so can you." she inched closer to take a look at the writing with him.

"He could do it without a glider…" Tenzin started explaining when he felt Lin lose interest suddenly and look into the distance.

"How is my little mud thrower?" Toph was coming toward them, "I assume that since you have time for casual reading, you've mastered the move I showed you."

"I wouldn't say mastered, but look at this." Lin jumped up and pulled a bunch of nearby rocks to her body creating a type of armor. Then she made a few jump-kicks, while the structure remained intact. Then suddenly Toph bended a rock to hit Lin's back.

"Ow." Lin winced and all the rocks fell down.

"Mastered?" Toph laughed, "The point of armor is to keep it up even when you're being hit."

"I know." Lin suddenly sounded sad, "But I've been practicing this all morning."

"I can vouch for that." Tenzin said from the background, making Lin smile again.

"Hi, Tenzin. If you want to see your uncle he just arrived." Toph said.

"After I finish this scroll."

"I'll be back for you, Linny, after work. Just try and get it by then." Toph walked back to the house.

"I can help you practice if you want." Tenzin offered.

"No, you need to read your crazy flying guy stories. Your dad will be mad."

"I like reading at night, anyway. It's more peaceful. So how do we do this?"

"Guess you can airbend some rocks at me." Lin said.

"Come on, come on, you got this." she mumbled under her breath and made the rock armor again preparing to defend against Tenzin's attacks.

 **oooooooooo**

Katara ran around the kitchen, since most of the food was done now. The Air Acolytes tried to help, but Katara always had a certain way she wanted everything served. Plus her waterbending made her the most efficient cook on the island.

"Can I help?" Zuko appeared at the door.

"Perfect." Katara said and turned to the acolytes, "You take those out on the table and me and the Fire Lord will finish up here."

"So what can I do?"

"You can chop that, please."

Zuko obeyed and for the next few minutes the only audible thing in the room was his chopping. He didn't even try to make small talk to seem less weird. It was almost like he wanted Katara to notice there was something wrong.

"What is it?" she finally gave in.

"Nothing, I just thought you could use a hand."

"Yeah, yeah, I've cooked every dinner we've ever eaten here and you never felt the need to help me before today… What's up?"

"I just wanted to ask you about your waterbending…"

"Yeah?" she moved her hands around the air stirring the contents of two pots at the same time.

"I know you can heal people's cuts and stuff, even lightning strikes… I wanted to ask if you can do anything for people's minds." he turned to her.

"Don't stop chopping." She scolded him, "Is there something that you need help with?"

"I've been having dreams… You know, what? Forget it." Zuko started chopping faster.

"We all have them, Zuko. That's war. Aang wakes up screaming sometimes, so do I. I suspect you have more material for yours than most people…."

"It's not like that. They're not flashbacks. I dreamt about Izumi."

"It's normal to fear for them. I do that every day."

"No, Katara. I had a dream of Izumi, with blue fire."

"Well, that's ridiculous. Izumi's nothing like… You know who." she stopped everything she was doing.

"All the dreams are all like that. Izumi turning into Azula. And I couldn't tell Mai, because how do you tell your wife you're afraid your innocent little daughter was going to hurt you?"

"Maybe that's not what they're about. Did something happen that reminded you of your sister?"

"All this time I thought it was about Izumi, because she's been doing really great in her training."

"That's good."

"No, I mean really, really great. Everyone's calling her a prodigy, saying she's the best they've ever seen at that age. And when I train with her I just keep seeing what I dreamed and she's sensing I'm treating her differently… That's why it needs to stop."

"But that's what I wanted to ask, is there any way this has more to do with your sister than your daughter?"

"I do still think about her. How I failed her."

"You didn't fail her. She didn't want to be found."

"But I stopped the search, I gave up on her. Maybe she didn't want to be found, but she wanted to be searched for. Maybe by giving up I sent her a message that I don't care anymore."

"So there you have it. You're finally happy, with your nation and your family and you simply feel guilty that you don't know if your sister was as lucky."

"You're right. It was about Azula. And the first thing I'm going to do when I come home is restart the search for her."

Katara was just preparing to start talking him out of it when Toph barged in.

"I have to split, patrol awaits." the Chief waved, "But not before saying goodbye to the girls in the kitchen."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Zuko rolled his eyes.

"Patrol? Sounds better than screaming children." Suki spoke up behind Toph, "Can I tag along? It'll be fun."

"You wanna go on _patrol_ with Toph!" Sokka suddenly realized their plan of not telling Suki was going to be harder to execute than previously thought, "Are you sure, Su? They get pretty boring."

"Yeah, can I, Toph? I mean, Chief?"

Toph thought about just saying it all there and then. _Me and Sokka are together and are having a baby. Any questions?_ But she could feel his heartbeat going crazy, so she decided the time of keeping the secret wasn't over. What was a little more…

"Of course. The more, the less boring. Come on."

 **oooooooooo**

Why did she have to say patrol? Couldn't she just say she was going to just sit around yelling out orders all day? They would have bought that! Now she was taking Suki on a tour of the most boring neighborhoods in the entire Republic City hoping they won't run into anything remotely interesting.

The doctor said she was supposed to be taking it easy with this pregnancy, but he didn't know Toph. Katara tried the same nonsense on her with Lin, but Toph still kicked around bad guys for as long as her feet would let her. But this time she really tried to stay out of danger without anyone finding out why.

"So is it always so… Peaceful on these patrols?" Suki broke the silence. The street Toph picked first was so calm the only sound you could hear were children playing in their yards.

"Most of the time. Until it isn't." Toph answered.

"Lin's really growing up fast. I saw her earthbending outside. You must be so proud."

"Most of the time. Until I'm not."

And there it was. The scary realization that the two of them really don't have anything to talk about. They worked fine within the group, but just the two of them together like this, no. Nevertheless, Suki still wasn't giving up.

"Did Sokka seem weird to you today? He barely said a word to me."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, I know his dad was sick and that couldn't have been easy…"

"You know Sokka, he's always weird."

"No, no… I think it's still weird because we broke up." Suki sighed, "And that's actually exactly why I came today. To talk to him… Wait, does that man look suspicious to you, he has that big bag…"

"He's fine, you were saying something about Sokka I think…"

"I think we should follow him. He looks like he's up to no good."

Toph agreed the man seemed suspicious enough, so they walked a couple of blocks after him and stopped to wait him out when he entered a shop.

"So while we're waiting, you had something to say." Toph couldn't deny her curiosity.

"It's nothing, I shouldn't… You know why Sokka and I broke up, right?"

"Relationships are not really my area…"

"The long distance thing was killing us. And he wanted to be serious right away while I wasn't ready, you know? All of you are already parents and I think he just wants that."

So he really did want to have a kid? People would think that someone who has a built-in lying detector would never be afraid about someone not being sincere. But they would be wrong. Toph could be certain that this particular morning, Sokka thought he wanted to be a dad. But if he wasn't being sincere with himself, then she couldn't tell either.

"So I actually came here to tell him that I'm ready now. If he would take me back, I could move to the city, since we resolved almost all conflict back in the Fire Nation. We could have a family…"

"Why are you telling me this?" Toph asked, not really knowing if she felt sorry or jealous.

"Because you're the one mom in the group who actually still has a job, no disrespect to Katara and Mai. I just wanted to ask you about how doable that is, because the Kyoshi Warriors have been my life for so long and…"

"You haven't even asked him yet. Maybe he's not interested." There was just a tiny bit of anger detectable in Toph's voice.

"Where did that come from?"

"He has someone else. OK? So you have no choice, but to stay in the Fire Nation."

"Wait, Sokka's with someone? Who? How long has this been going on?" Suki forgot they were surveilling anything and shifted all her focus to Toph, "No one told me anything."

There it was. The point of no return. Lying now would clearly just be cruel. She had to know, but again, Toph made a promise…

"It's me. He's dating me." Toph spoke finally, but couldn't see the tears start to drip from Suki's eyes.

"I knew it! All those nights he said he was helping you take care of Lin, because you were blind and alone and hurt and fragile… And I actually felt bad for the poor dumped Toph, all the while you were screwing my boyfriend!"

"You wanna watch what you're saying, honey! We never did anything until you dumped him! I would never do that to you… Neither would he. We weren't planning for it to happen. We just realized one day that we both wanted to give it a try."

"Oh, and how long did it take for you two to realize that? I'm curious, since I spent a full week after at Zuko's palace crying my eyes out. How long?"

"A few hours." Toph said, causing Suki to snicker.

Honestly, Toph was just furious Sokka wasn't here to get some of this anger taken out on him. She was his damn ex-girlfriend. He was the one that missed every opportunity for months to tell her. Why did she have to take all of this?

"Suki, you have to know we never wanted to hurt you…"

"I don't care… I'm still asking him to get back together with me."

"What? You can't-" Toph was cut off by an explosion in the building they were surveilling. The blast was pretty powerful so most of the building was already on fire.

"Come on, we have to help!" Suki pulled Toph towards the building, but the Chief didn't budge, "What's wrong with you, come on! There's people inside!"

"I can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"I just can't! OK?"

"You're their chief."

"Pregnant, is what I am! I can't breathe in that smoke, I can't get burnt, I can't even carry people out. I'm not supposed to be here!"

"Sokka and you are…" Suki phrased as a question to which Toph nodded.

"Let's just call for back up." the Chief suggested, but Suki had her own idea.

"I have to try and get them out!" Suki whipped a few fresh tears from her face and was ready to run in.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Su."

After hearing that, Suki nodded and ran straight into the flaming building.

"This is stupid." Toph whispered to herself, "She'll be toast in there without my bending. I think if you were here, baby, that you'd agree we have to do something."

And with that Toph started running after her friend. She almost reached the front door when there was another blast. That was the last thing Toph remembered.

 **oooooooooo**

At least before waking up back at Air Temple Island.

"Oh, thank the Spirits!" Katara's voice was the first thing Toph heard and it gave her a sense of safety. It was fine. They must have found her and Suki and helped all those people. She could feel the chill of Katara's healing, but other than a few sore spots she felt alright. Her armor was off, they must know…

"Is the baby alright?" she asked.

"You'll both be fine. Katara did a wonderful job." Aang walked over to touch his wife's shoulder. His voice seemed so sad, even if it was good news.

"And Lin? Where's she?"

"Mai's taking care of all the kids. They're all fine." Zuko answered her, also sounding a little off.

"Then what's with you guys? I'm sorry I didn't tell about the kid! Why are you all so glum?" Toph asked before feeling someone take her hand. Even without using her feet she somehow knew it was Sokka.

"It's Suki…"Sokka stopped and squeezed her hand tighter, "She didn't make it."

Oh.

"The blast that knocked you out also collapsed the building." Aang explained, "I flew there right after, but there were no survivors inside."

Toph thought back to the blast. She tried to stop her. She tried to tell her, but she wouldn't listen… But Suki wouldn't even have been there if it wasn't for her. After winning a war together and getting home safely, this… This is how her story ends?! A stupid freaking fire after a dumb little fight?!

They all watched as her eyes filled with tears until Katara broke the silence.

"Sokka told us everything, so we'll give you two some space." Katara's voice gave away that she was close to crying herself. The three of them left the room slowly after that and it was just Toph and Sokka.

"I was so scared I'd lost you two." he leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"I told Suki. I told her about us," she put a hand on her belly, "All three of us, before she went into that building."

"And?"

"We had a fight. And I let her go alone in there…"

"And the last thing I did was lie to her." Sokka sighed, "But I'm still thankful she managed to keep you out of there. I don't think I could have gone through that."

"Stop being selfish! She's dead! What do we even… Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know! I don't… know…" he stood up and started pacing across the room, "I guess, we forgive ourselves and… Think about the baby."

"You don't need to pretend you're OK, I know what she must have meant to you…"

"I'm not pretending. I just know we're gonna bounce back from this. For Lin and… Unnamed baby number two."

 **oooooooooo**

 _ **I was actually asked about Suki's fate in the comments of another one of my stories set later in the timeline. I gave a vague explanation there and then I felt like doing this whole thing. Anyway, I'll probably do another Tokka short for the fun of it.**_

 _ **Keep in mind this was extra har to put in either the ATLA or the LOK box. I mean, it is mostly about Tokka. Mostly...**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A little addition since I felt like it.**_

 **oooooooooo**

 **Chapter 3**

"What are you two still doing? We got to go!" Toph bended her armor off and was searching for a shirt to put over her tank top.

"Tell mommy, Su. What are you doing?" Sokka turned to their three-year-old.

"Finger painting." she said almost clearly.

"Yes, finger painting. Good girl!"

"Would you stop training her like she's a lemur?" Toph found a shirt on the sofa and put it on.

"I can't help it, she just sucks everything up like a coral-sponge." he smiled at the little girl, sitting on the floor, painting flowers with her fingers.

"It's time to go, Su." he took all of their artwork from before and put it away, same with the watercolors, "Go wash up."

"You wash up!" Suyin chuckled like she said something funny and sprinted to the bathroom.

"Please go help her in there." Toph was retying her bun.

"Um, Toph... That shirt has a stain."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" she took it off and started walking towards her room, but she stopped in front of Lin's door.

"Didn't you get the hawk? We're going to Air Temple Island right now!" she said, sensing her daughter was still writing something at her desk.

"I have to finish this homework. It's due tomorrow."

"You'll do it later, come on!"

"No, I can't get it!" Lin had been frustrated all morning trying to conquer those few tasks. Math just wasn't her thing, she knew it. But she still wanted a high grade in it and that was never going to happen if she kept going like this.

"Then bring it with you and Tenzin can explain it. He's good with that boring stuff."

"No! I don't want him explaining it to me again. I can do it by myself!"

"If you could, you would have already done it!"

Lin didn't respond, but started crying into her hands.

"Here we go again…" Toph disappeared into the hallway to look for a new shirt, completely ignoring Lin.

"What's going on here?" Sokka followed the screams to Lin's room, "Linny, what's wrong?"

Lin hid her face from him, even though he already saw she was crying.

"Is it the Math again? Can I help?" he tried again.

"No, you can't, cause I'm stupid!" Lin stood up suddenly and knocked everything off her desk. Sokka could swear he felt the ground shake when her books hit the floor.

"You can quake all you want, you're still going." Toph emerged from her room, finally dressed for the occasion, "Where's Su?"

"She wanted to change first." Sokka said.

"She can do that herself? Maybe you should be _training_ her." Toph turned to Lin, "Calm down already and let's go. It's a birthday and we'll be staying late. I can't leave you here alone."

"How about I stay here with Lin? And we do the homework together?" Sokka asked.

"I thought you wanted to spend time with us and your sister."

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of in the mood for Math right now." he said. He was really looking forward to the chance to spend some time with his daughter. He didn't get as much of those as he used to. But Lin needed his help.

Toph nodded in understanding and went to pick Su up in her room.

"Well, have fun you two. The cool kids are leaving!" Toph yelled from the front door and left, carrying Suyin.

When Sokka turned back towards Lin she was picking up her books and pens from the floor in silence.

"So what are we working on today?" he decided to help her gather up her things.

"Fractions." she sat back at her desk and opened her notebook. Sokka leaned in to take a look at what exactly she was expected to have an understanding of. He didn't go to school at her age, or know any of that stuff, but he got an education later. And it turned out he had a knack for things like this.

"Do you have to stay at the South Pole?" Lin interrupted his concentration.

"Yeah, Linny. I'm their Chief now." It was a relatively new thing, since his dad died no more than a year ago, forcing Sokka to relocate his whole life. And leave Toph and Su behind.

"But your sister's here. And… It sucks here without you!" Lin confessed.

Sokka was already feeling all kinds of guilty for not living in the same city as his daughter, but he didn't expect this. While he was the Councilman he could visit them almost every day, so Lin kind of got used to him being around. She didn't know about his relationship with Toph or why he started coming more often after Su was born, but on some level she considered him a part of the family.

"Mom's being terrible to me." the little girl continued, "I'm probably the only kid in the world that gets in trouble for not wanting to copy my homework."

They both chuckled at that.

"You have to understand, Lin, your mother gets upset when there's something she can't help you with."

"Like school?"

"Yeah, like school. You know she loves helping you with your bending, because that's something she's very good at. Your mom wants to prove she can take care of you and your sister all by herself. And when there's something she just can't do for you, she lashes out."

"But you help her all the time and she doesn't mind."

"Well, I guess when I'm helping her she knows it's not because she's blind, or because I think she's a bad mom, but because she's my friend and I don't like seeing her over-stressed."

Lin nodded and then thought about what she just heard for a while, "But you're my friend too, right? I still don't want you to leave again."

"I'll still come around often. And Tenzin can tag in for me with this stuff."

"I always ask Tenzin to explain everything. He'll think I'm stupid."

"Believe me, I think Tenzin likes you just fine. And he'll never bring it up because he knows you'll kick his little butt."

"Thank you for staying with me, Sokka."

"It's really no problem. And what do you say, when we finish this little piece-of-cake homework we have some fun? Whatever you wanna do, I'm in."

Sokka immediately knew he said something right because he was rewarded with the biggest smile he ever saw Lin make.

 **oooooooooo**

"The little lemur is all tucked in, Chief." Sokka emerged from Su's room, "And I'll get right on the kitchen, don't worry."

"What's wrong with the kitchen?" Toph frowned.

"No-nothing." he stuttered.

"Seriously, even if I couldn't sense lying." she matched into the kitchen and only stopped when she stepped on something mushy and wet.

"It's seaweed. I said I'd clean it up." he followed after her.

"What did you two do today?"

"Well, Lin was pretty hungry after we played fort. So we tried to make seaweed wraps because she said they were her favorite, but we kind of failed and decided to make seaweed noodles instead." he started picking up ingredients from all over the floor and putting them in the trash.

"Did you take care of her stupid thing in the end?"

"You mean the homework? Yeah, we did. She got everything... Smart kid." he smiled to himself.

"Annoying kid. I have no idea how you got her to bed before we came home. Not to mention how you got Su to surrender so quickly."

"What can I say? I've always been good with the ladies." he smirked.

"You told that joke when Kya was a baby, when Izumi was a baby, when Lin was a baby…" she used her fingers to count.

"Still pretty funny."

Toph pulled him in for a deep kiss, seemingly just to make him stop talking.

"How about we forget about the kitchen for tonight since you have to leave in the morning?" she said between kisses.

"Yeah, about that… I was thinking about sticking around for like two more days." he cupped her cheek, "Lin reminded me of how much I miss playing with the two of them or just cleaning out the kitchen with you at midnight."

"I get what you mean. This city blows without you…"

Sokka smiled hearing her say almost the exact thing Lin said to him earlier. Those two were too similar for their own good.

"But I have to know how you managed to make such a mess? I'm genuinely curious since I'm blind and I've never even gotten close." Toph asked after a while, when she realized the drain was clogged.

"Food fight. Or rather, food battle."

"Do I wanna know?"

"I was the Fire Lord and she vanquished me."

"She was Twinkle Toes?"

"Actually, she was you. She's always you when we play."

"Good choice." Toph realized his back was turned so she flung one of the pieces of seaweed at his neck.

"Why?"

"That's how I show affection. I missed you, Blockhead." she embraced him, "Plus, I would rather move than have to clean this right now."

"I missed you too." he sprinkled some flower onto her face just so she'd know he was serious.

 **oooooooooo**

 _ **Hope you enjoyed that, reviews are always welcome. I think I'd done with these for now.**_


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